


after the mask

by gaytimetraveller



Category: Persona 2
Genre: Comfort, i guess idk its late andim sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 09:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11011065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaytimetraveller/pseuds/gaytimetraveller
Summary: After Joker had been defeated, there was no way Jun was going back to some lonely, kinda chilled apartment. Maya couldn't bear to leave him alone, Tatsuya wasn't much better.





	after the mask

**Author's Note:**

> its so late and im quite sick but this is just th ebest idea its really good really soft i love persona 2 innocent sin

After everything was over, after the mask had fallen to the floor, shattered into what looked like a million pieces, and Jun had fallen with it. He’d collapsed onto his knees with a sound that sound like it hurt on the cold stone floor, and he’d taken one deep, shaky breath before breaking down into sobs. He started to fall forward (with those hard floors that was a promise of a broken nose or scratched hands at the least), but Tatsuya dashed forward to catch him, everyone else clattering behind him.

After all that, after Jun had wiped his eyes on a half dirty half tattered sleeve, after he’d promptly passed out on shaky legs at Maya’s side, after it all felt well and truly done (although they were only halfway there and they all knew that well), it was time for rest, as much time as any of them could afford.

Just before he’d passed out, Maya’s arm around his shoulder, weary yet grateful smiles all around, Jun felt at home for the first time in _years_. Then he promptly fell unconscious and buckled to the floor. It’d been a long time coming.

He only stirred once on the way out, vaguely awake in someone’s warm set of arms, the smell of fresh air forest; trees and earth and life. He smiled a little, wearily, thought that this must all be a dream, for it was all far too good, he didn’t deserve this. For so long, all he believed he deserved the unspoken truth of what fulfilling his role as Joker would likely eventually entail, whether that had been his father’s intention or not. (He wasn’t sure if he truly would’ve been able to complete his role as Joker, or if he would’ve become a martyr long before that, sooner rather than later. That set off the slightest tinge of fear.) He drifted off again quickly, to the sound of hard shoes on soft ground and a vague mumble of conversation.

The next time Jun woke up, it was in a bed. A small part of him wanted to panic, he didn’t know where or when he was at all, what little he could blearily see was unfamiliar. A bigger part of him wanted to cry because it’d been so damn long since he’d slept in a real, warm, comfortable bed. He slowly lifted a hand to wipe it over his eyes, and found his old uniform jacket had been replaced with a fuzzy pajama shirt. He nearly started to cry for real just at that.

Reluctantly, Jun pulled back the fluffy duvet from over his head. As the sight of the room slowly filtered in, he noticed someone sitting on the end of the bed next to a dim yellowy lamp, tiredly sipping a mug of something. Presumably something hot, with sugar probably. Maya. Of course it was Maya. She turned from her mug and softly smiled at Jun.

He wished he could get up to hug her, but not only was he far too anxious, too shy, too guilty, he was also far too sore. Just sitting up halfway in bed made him feel enough pinpricks of pain to deter him from going much further.

“How’re you feeling?” she said, her voice was low, she sounded worn out. Nothing could’ve sounded better to Jun.

“Better,” his voice was barely above a whisper, and for a moment he was amazed his voice was _his_.

Maya nodded, then glanced over at something on the floor. “Do you want something to eat? We’ve got tons of stuff, my roommate, Ulala, she made a great soup earlier, if you’d like some,”

She looked a concerned as she said that; concerned and hoping Jun would say yes. Then it occurred to him that he probably looked more than a little sickly, that he couldn’t even remember what the last thing he ate _was_ let alone _when_. Then again, there’d been a lot of gaps in his memory over the last while, lots of holes. He didn’t especially want to know what had happened in them, it all felt like a dream, but this felt like a dream too. “I think, I’d really like something to eat,” his voice was still soft, just a bit rough, not from disuse but misuse. Everything hurt.

“Do you want the soup?”

“Um, yes, please, and thank you,”

Maya smiled and shrugged as she stood up. “It’s no problem, you don’t have to thank me, you’ve got to eat!”

She padded off into the darkness, and not long after there was the sound of a fridge opening and closing, and the click-beep of a microwave. It felt weirdly homely, feeling so at home made Jun feel like he could cry. The microwave hummed, and Jun watched the glow of the lamp Maya left on on the floor. There were cute little shapes on the lampshade, it was cute.

Maya walked back in with a little plastic bowl of soup. She sat on the side of the bed and handed it to Jun once he’d managed to sit up a little further. His hands shook as he took the bowl, and they shook even more as he tried to use the spoon, but he managed. Maya looked like she wanted to ask if he wanted help, but she didn’t. She seemed to trust him enough.

Jun shovelled the soup into his mouth and it felt like it was the first thing he’d eaten in a long time. It tasted good but that didn’t especially matter; it was hot and food and that was far more than enough.

Eventually, Maya took the empty bowl from his still-shaking hands, and she laid it on the floor by the lamp. Jun laid back down a bit in bed and his joints creaked. He smiled and Maya smiled back and they both ached at how missed this kind of home-y family feeling with each other, some opportunities lost to the years. Maya started to stand up again.

“You should probably sleep, it’s late. You probably need it too,”

Jun looked around quickly, eyes eventually settling on a few windows. Outside the sky was pitch black, the stars surely burning brightly in the darkness. Something in Jun ached to go look, but he knew he’d ache more in the physical sense if he tried to get up now.

Something on the floor shifted and Maya sighed with a small smile. “You should probably sleep, but, Tatsuya’s still here, he fell asleep a while ago. He didn’t want to leave you alone…I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you wanted to wake him up,”

Jun was confused, but happy. It felt odd to know someone cared that much; it felt nice. It was the first time in the long time he’d felt cared for like that. It made him smile a little but it also made something in him ache for something lost.

“It’s okay,” Jun said, his voice was low and he knew he desperately wanted to see Tatsuya but god, it felt selfish. He couldn’t be more selfish, not after all this, after all the trouble he’d caused, he’d already been selfish enough.

Maya wasn’t quite convinced, she had always seen through him some way or another. “Are you sure? He really wouldn’t mind, I think he’d be happier to see you than anything,”

Tatsuya snored from the floor and it made Jun smile as he shook his head. “It’s okay, I really should sleep…thank you for this, all of this, I’m sure I don’t…I don’t deserve everything…”

“Nonsense, you deserve it more than anything. I really mean it, you really do,” Maya’s smile was just a little bit sad, the melancholy kind. “If you need anything, call me, it’s no problem, please,”

Jun nodded with a small smile, and pulled the blankets back up over his head. Still, none of this felt quite real, and he still felt quite shaken no matter how much of a small smile he had. As he curled up back under the blankets he was sure this wouldn’t last. He wished it would, but he knew it couldn’t, nothing good ever did.

When he woke up again, everything was brighter, even under the blankets, and he hadn’t felt so warm in a long time. It’d been so, so long since he’d been _warm_ , especially in such a safe feeling way.

When he tried to sit up he noticed something weighing down the blankets on one side, and dear lord it was Tatsuya, still asleep, sandwiched between two blankets, above one Jun was under but still below another one. He must’ve gotten sore on the floor, it tended to hurt your back (Jun knew, more than well enough). Tatsuya stirred and Jun was left in a halfway stunned silence. That last night hadn’t felt real, talking to Maya hadn’t felt real, consequence free, but this felt incredibly real. Maybe it was the sun shining in through the windows, and how much less exhausted to the core he was.

Tatsuya’s eyes slowly blinked open, and he immediately caught sight of Jun, staring straight at him, and he could only stare back. Somewhere out of sight there was the click of heels on a floor, a vague humming, Maya was doing her daily routine somewhere in the apartment.

Neither Jun nor Tatsuya felt like they could look away, and Jun felt like it was ten years ago all over again. All of a sudden the ticking of the watch against his wrist seemed all too present, a detail he hadn’t thought to notice since waking up at Maya’s. Now it was too big to miss, and it felt like a pulse on his wrist.

Suddenly Tatsuya sat up, and Jun quickly followed, mouth open but with nothing to say. (What was there to say? Too much and too little all at once.) Unexpectedly, Tatsuya awkwardly but gently pulled him into a hug, arms loose, hesitant and a little uncertain of if Jun would want that kind of contact, and that seemed to say everything neither of them could at that moment. Jun gasped quietly and clung onto Tatsuya far tighter than he was to him.

“Thank you,” Jun murmured, and he sounded incredibly choked up.

Tatsuya only managed a vague questioning noise between how half asleep he was and how absolutely tongue tied he was.

“For saving me,” Jun’s voice was barely a whisper. Tatsuya nodded into Jun’s shoulder, as if to say it’s the only thing he ever would’ve done.

Tatsuya only hummed, and it was shaky, like he was going to cry. “You would’ve done the same,”


End file.
